I'll make you the furnace and the cauldron, so you can refine Yin and Yang and prove the Great

The Elders' Hall, however, presents a completely different scene.

During the day, the Fourth Elder sat in the hall, handling defense and other affairs flawlessly. This newly promoted late-stage Void Refinement Grand Cultivator was even more shrewd than before—patrol rotations, spirit stone allocation, disciple shifts—everything was arranged meticulously. The peak masters, who initially held a wait-and-see attitude, were all subdued one by one within half a month.

Li Hanshan was happy to have some free time and became a hands-off manager.

However, despite his leisurely lifestyle, there was one thing he personally handled—

Alchemy.

The Fourth Elder had only broken through to the late stage of the Void Refinement realm a little over a month ago; his realm was still unstable, and his foundation was unstable. Ordinary pills were too weak for a Void Refinement cultivator, and top-grade seventh-rank pills were extremely rare and hard to find.

After thinking about it, Li Hanshan decided to do it himself.

The main peak's rear hall, the alchemy room.

He slammed the bronze alchemy furnace he brought from the Yaoguang ruins onto the ground. The lotus pattern on the furnace body lit up, and pure yang fire of purple-gold surged from his palm, silently enveloping the furnace.

The Fourth Elder initially didn't take it seriously.

Alchemy? She'd seen plenty of grandmaster alchemists in Central Continent, all of them hundreds of years old. This young man's cultivation talent was monstrous, fine, but his alchemy skills—

Half an hour later, crimson clouds gathered above the alchemy room.

A quarter of an hour later, the furnace lid trembled slightly, and seven streams of light shot into the sky. Li Hanshan casually grabbed them and put them all into the jade bottle.

Seven pills, each perfectly round, with seven cloud-like patterns swirling around their bodies, exuding a fragrant aroma. After just one inhalation, the Fourth Elder felt the new realm floating within his body stabilize a bit more.

"Seventh grade, Tai Xuan Nourishing Yuan Pill." Li Hanshan tossed the jade bottle aside. "Seven pills, one a day. After seven days, your cultivation level will be completely stable."

The Fourth Elder stood there, holding the jade bottle, stunned.

Seven-grade pills, seven pills per batch, 100% success rate?

She has lived for over a thousand years and has never heard of such a thing.

"Master..." She opened her mouth, but ultimately couldn't hold back, "Just how many other things do you know?"

"Not much, not much," Li Hanshan waved his hand, his smile smug and inviting. "Just a tiny bit."

Jiang Nianwei, who was assisting him, smiled slightly and said, "I felt the same way when I first saw his ancient alchemy technique."

The Fourth Elder looked at Jiang Nianwei, then at Li Hanshan, and suddenly felt that he had wasted his thousand years of life—and became even more devoted to her.

-

Aside from his spiritual practice, Li Hanshan didn't forget Ya Tou.

Every ten days or so, he would find a quiet night, extinguish the candle, and sleep soundly.

In his dream, the familiar bluestone and flowering trees remained. The barefoot girl in her yellow dress, as always, jumped up upon seeing him, chattering excitedly around him. This time, she continued to teach him her newly devised method of refining the spirit—the incantations were strange, and the energy circulation routes were unbelievable, but after practicing it several times, Li Hanshan's pure Yang primordial spirit in his sea of ​​consciousness became increasingly refined, and even his divine sense improved a bit.

"Grandpa, you'll have to come often." The girl leaned closer and lowered her voice, "This method has nine levels. If you only come once every ten days or half a month, how long will it take you to master it?"

"Okay, okay." Li Hanshan gently ruffled her hair, his heart softening.

Beside the bluestone, the flowering trees bloomed silently. As the dream faded, a faint floral fragrance seemed to linger on his pillow. Li Hanshan lay on the jade couch, stunned for a moment, then suddenly chuckled—he had been disliked by a little girl.

-

Of course, despite his enjoyment, he didn't neglect the affairs at the front.

After the army set off, a military report from the front was sent back every few days.

In the first month, the Hehuan Sect's army marched day and night to the outskirts of the Yinquan Sect. Together with the remnants of the Yinquan Sect, they managed to tear a gap in the encirclement and send supplies and reinforcements in.

In the second month, the Immortal Alliance reinforced its troops, and the two sides entered a stalemate across a thousand-mile battle line, with the Yinquan Sect's mountain gate as the center. They fought seven or eight battles of varying sizes—encounter battles between Nascent Soul and Void Refinement cultivators, and Dao Integration cultivators fighting each other from a distance. Each side had its victories and defeats, and neither side was able to gain the upper hand.

By the third month, the wording in the battle reports had gradually become calmer.

"The Immortal Alliance besieged the area without attacking, while the allied forces remained on the defensive without venturing out; the two sides were locked in a stalemate around the Yinquan Sect's perimeter..."

Li Hanshan put down the military report, tapping his fingertips lightly on the table, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.

"It's balanced now."

He muttered to himself, a smile playing on his lips.

The Immortal Alliance couldn't crack the Yinquan Sect, a tough nut to crack, and the three Dao Integration Realm cultivators were hesitant to go all out; the various factions of the Demonic Path were beaten into a united front, and the Yinquan Sect was severely weakened and would not be able to recover for a hundred years; while the Hehuan Sect—with its army outside, its prestige was growing day by day, and its disciples were flocking to its gates, making it a thriving sect.

No one moves, no one is destroyed.

This balance, a stalemate for others, was the perfect situation for Li Hanshan.

"Let's fight, take it slow." He stretched, "It would be best if we fought for ten or eight years."

Anyway, I'm not the one in a hurry.

Just as rumors of "mass ascension to godhood" spread throughout the Central Continent, and countless eyes were fixed on the Hehuan Sect's mountain gate—

Early that morning, at the side hall of the main peak.

Li Hanshan leaned against the jade table, idly flipping through the defense jade slips of the various peaks. A gatekeeper disciple hurried in, bowing and reporting:

"Elder Qi, someone is requesting an audience outside the mountain gate."

"Oh?" Li Hanshan asked without looking up. "Which peak?"

"Reporting to Elder, they are not from our sect—they are from a subordinate sect at the foot of the mountain, the Red Phoenix Sect. Six or seven of them arrived in a small flying boat, and the leader claims to be the sect leader of the Red Phoenix Sect." The gatekeeper disciple paused, his expression strange. "They said...they wanted to offer you, Elder, a...a Holy Maiden."

Li Hanshan stopped flipping through the jade slip.

What should we offer?

"To offer the Holy Maiden," the gatekeeper disciple said, forcing a smile. "It means...to offer their sect's Holy Maiden to you, Elder."

The hall fell silent for a moment.

The mountain-protecting formation sealed the mountain for three months, prohibiting anyone from outside the sect from entering. Those outside the mountain gates couldn't get in, and the gatekeepers dared not act on their own authority—the offering of the Holy Maiden was unprecedented; who dared to make the decision?

I had no choice but to report to the main peak, one level at a time.

Li Hanshan slowly put down the jade slip, stroked his chin, and his eyes gradually narrowed.

"That's interesting."